Lonnie Zwaigenbaum, M.D.

Professor, University of Alberta

SFARI Investigator, SFARI Scientific Review Board Website

Lonnie Zwaigenbaum is a professor and the director of autism research in the division of Developmental Pediatrics in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta. Zwaigenbaum completed his pediatric training at Queen’s University and his clinical fellowship in developmental pediatrics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. He completed a research fellowship and master’s degree in health research methodology at McMaster University.

His research focuses on early behavioral and biological markers, and early developmental trajectories in children with autism and related disorders. To identify early behavioral and neurobiological markers of autism, his research group is following a high-risk cohort, namely infant siblings of children with autism, in order to identify specific risk markers to aid in earlier diagnosis and study basic processes (e.g., attention, emotion, executive control) that may underlie later symptoms.

Funded Projects

Genomic influences on development and outcomes in infants at risk for autism

Awarded: 2011
Award Type: Research

SFARI Funded Publications

Towards a data driven approach to screen for autism risk at 12 months of age. Meera S.S., Donovan K., Wolff J.J., Zwaigenbaum L., Elison J., Kinh T., Shen M.D., Estes A.M., Hazlett H., Watson L.R., Baranek G.T., Swanson M.R., St. John T., Burrows C.A., Schultz R., Dager S., Botteron K., Pandey J., Piven J., IBIS Network.

Genome-wide detection of tandem DNA repeats that are expanded in autism. Trost B., Engchuan W., Nguyen C.M., Thiruvahindrapuram B., Dolzhenko E., Backstrom I., Mirceta M., Mojarad B.A., Yin Y., Dov A., Chandrakumar I., Prasolava T., Shum N., Hamdan O., Pellecchia G., Howe J.L., Whitney J., Klee E.W., Baheti S., Amaral D., Anagnostou E., Elsabbagh M., Fernandez B.A., Hoang N., Lewis M.E.S., Liu X., Sjaarda C., Smith I.M., Szatmari P., Zwaigenbaum L., Glazer D., Hartley D., Stewart A.K., Eberle M.A., Sato N., Pearson C.E., Scherer S. W., Yuen R.K.C.

Predictive impact of rare genomic copy number variations in siblings of individuals with autism spectrum disorders. D'Abate L., Walker S., Yuen R.K.C., Tammimies K., Buchanan J.A., Davies R.W., Thiruvahindrapuram B., Wei J., Brian J., Bryson S.E., Dobkins K., Howe J., Landa R., Leef J., Messinger D., Ozonoff S., Smith I.M., Stone W.L., Warren Z.E., Young G., Zwaigenbaum L., Scherer S. W.